


Close Our Eyes, Pretend To Fly

by HarperJean



Series: Every Word I Say [2]
Category: Hanson (Band)
Genre: Bands, Crush, F/M, Music, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-20
Updated: 2017-01-20
Packaged: 2018-09-18 16:50:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9394367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HarperJean/pseuds/HarperJean
Summary: Phoebe has been friends with the Hanson brothers since she was ten years old, but it's the first time she has ever been to one of their shows.(A one-shot based off of my full length work "Lost Without Each Other", that focuses on Phoebe and Taylor.  Enjoy!!!)





	

####  2000 

Taylor counted his steps as he paced in the hallway outside of the green room. It was how he calmed down before shows. The numbers, although meaningless, seemed to put his mind at ease and wipe his inner dialogue clean of anything other than the handful of songs they were about to play. He hadn’t meant to get this nervous. They had now been doing this for three years - touring the country and playing to record breaking crowds. But here he was, in his hometown, about to go on stage and already sweating through his grey t-shirt. 

“You okay, man?” Ike asked, as he rounded the corner. He couldn’t wait to get out there. They had been doing a lot of promo shows this summer and all three of them were chomping at the bit to get the tour off the ground. “You were super jumpy at sound check.” 

“Yeah, yeah I’m fine. I don’t know why I’m so nervous.” 

“Mmmm...I could probably think of a reason,” Ike said with a mischievous glimmer in his eye, as he slid through the door to the green room. Taylor threw an annoyed look towards his older brother, and Ike responded by sticking his tongue out. Taylor rolled his eyes, but he knew exactly what had just been referenced. He was nervous because for the first time ever, Phoebe was in the audience. 

Taylor remembered distinctly the day he met Phoebe. When they were younger, they went to the same piano teacher, and her lesson was right before his. He was shocked when she stepped out of the room that first week of lessons and he realized that she was his age...or maybe even Zac’s. Surely that couldn’t be right. He smiled sheepishly as she walked by, wondering how he had gotten so behind in his skill set. He knew he was good, but suddenly he felt a surge of competitiveness, urging him to be even better. After that day, he would get to his lesson early, so he could listen to the last fifteen minutes or so of her allotted time. 

Now, that very same girl was in the audience, waiting for him to take the stage. She had seen him play countless times. They had their piano recitals, but also she played with them in their garage almost every day after that first time he had invited her (before they headed out on tour, of course). His brothers hadn’t been too sure if she could play rock music, but he had no doubt she would pick it up in no time. It was mere days before she had pilfered Ike’s bass and was adding a new depth to their songs. 

“What? It’s just one string off from a cello,” she had said, quietly, as the boys ogled her ability to pick out the bass line and make it her own. 

“Wait...what?” an impatient Zac asked from behind the drums. 

“A cello is tuned A-D-G-C. A bass is tuned E-A-D-G. It’s just one string difference. Just like a violin and a viola have one string difference. So it’s pretty easy for me to figure it out.” 

“I don’t even know what you’re talking about,” Zac said, spinning around on his drummer’s stool. 

“Yes you do, you lunatic,” Taylor interjected. He was always so envious of her ability to pick up virtually any stringed instrument and figure it out in a matter of hours. Even though he excelled in piano, he sometimes struggled with guitar. 

“Hey are you ready?” Isaac’s voice brought him back from his memory. “Let’s go, dude.” 

“Yeah, sorry just daydreaming. Yes I’m ready.” 

“Oh wait, is this the show Phoebe is coming to?” Zac asked from the back of their three person line. Taylor rolled his eyes yet again, jealous of Zac’s ability to forget certain information. He wished he could let facts that made him this nervous slip his mind. 

Once they mounted the stage, most of his butterflies flew away. He wondered where Phoebe was sitting. He hadn’t looked around in the wings right before going on, trying to focus on the show ahead of him, but he figured she was off to the right with Walker. But when he looked down halfway through the first song he saw her beaming face, front and center. He couldn’t help grinning himself. His nervousness turned into a light that filled his body. The kind you feel when you look at your favorite person. He decided quickly that he loved having a friendly face in the audience, especially one so close to the stage. Someone who was smiling instead of screaming, someone who loved their music just as much as she loved them, if not more. Someone who he could sing straight to without worrying whether or not they would lose their mind or crumple to the floor or faint. He smirked as he continued to play, happy to lock eyes with her every few minutes, already excited to talk to her about the the show afterwards. 

The brothers lined up at the front of the stage to play a few acoustic songs, which caused Phoebe’s eyes to flash with an excitement Taylor could see from his piano. She always loved when they played simply. She said that was when they shone brighter than any other time - when their three part harmonies were so tight and so well blended that she was left dumbfounded trying to pick one voice out of the trio. 

While they were working on writing songs for the new album, Zac had been adamant about including the song “Wish That I Was There” somewhere on the track list. Isaac and Taylor had been cautious, knowing that it didn’t hold the musical or lyrical depth of some of their other tracks. It was simple. The lyrics were fine. But it was a Zac lead so eventually they folded. Taylor added a bridge that made it have a deeper layer, making it a song they could all get behind. As soon as they started singing it that night on stage, Taylor finally saw why Zac had been so eager to put it on the record. The girl it was about was sitting just a few feet in front of him. 

Taylor looked over at Isaac, who was smirking behind his microphone. They caught each other’s gaze and shared a look that said “oh, so that’s happening, I guess.” 

He couldn’t say he was necessarily surprised. They were the same age, and probably spent the most time together out of the four of them. But nonetheless he felt a pang of jealousy somewhere deep in his stomach. He wasn’t even sure where it was coming from or why he was feeling it. He chalked it up to protectiveness. He sometimes felt like he was just as much Phoebe’s older brother as he was Zac’s, and no one likes to see their baby sister fawning over a boy, not matter who it was. 

Unfortunately, he couldn’t shake the feeling for the remainder of the show. It was as if, now that he saw the looks they were giving each other, he couldn’t unsee it, as hard as he tried. 

 

***

“TAY!!” He heard Phoebe yell from down the hall, rushing towards them as they made their way back to the green room after the final encore. 

His eyes lit up when he saw her running, and allowed her to slam into his sweaty body without apologizing for his soaked through tank top. He lifted her up off the ground, swinging her around once, both of them high off of the adrenaline of the concert. 

“What did you think?!” He asked, excitedly. 

“Oh my God, it was amazing! I can’t believe...I just...you guys are rockstars!” Phoebe sputtered. He chuckled at how out of breath she seemed, having just seen her three best friends in a completely different light. She babbled for a few minutes before Taylor excused himself to change, promising to meet her out front after he made it through the wall of fans waiting outside the stage door. As he walked into the green room, Zac was walking out, and he couldn’t help but linger at the door, turning back to see his younger brother’s interaction with Phoebe. They hugged tightly and Zac kissed her on the cheek, causing her to immediately blush. Taylor’s forehead crinkled with confusion. 

“So wait, are Zac and Phoebs like...a thing now?” He asked as he shed his tank top, Isaac taking his time gathering his things before entering the throng of girls outside. 

“First time I heard anything. But now that you mention it, I guess it would make sense.” 

“Yeah, it does. I just…you would think that one of them would have told us.”

“Maybe that’s the exact reason why they didn’t. They probably just didn’t know how to bring it up,” Ike explained, always the diplomat. 

“Guess you’re right,” Taylor sighed as he pulled on a clean shirt. 

There was a few moments of silence before Isaac pushed the issue. “Are you like...upset about that or…” 

“What? No! No, I guess I just wish I hadn’t found out by them making moony eyes at each other all through the show tonight.” 

“Hmmm. You’d rather have her make moony eyes at you?’

“Ike, seriously...just shut up.” 

***

Taylor pushed his long bangs out of his face, the wind from the car windows having whipped them in front of his eyes, obscuring his vision. 

After the show, he had snatched Phoebe away to talk to her about the songs, the set list, the arrangements, and anything else that crossed their still-buzzing minds. They spent an hour just sitting in his car talking before he turned the ignition and pulled out of the performing arts center parking lot. They were heading home when Phoebe had mentioned that she didn’t want this night to end, so Taylor turned the wheel to the right and made his way to the highway. 

He reached over and turned down the radio to ask her another question. “What was your favorite song of the night?”

“A Song to Sing. Easy.” 

“Really?” 

“Yes absolutely. Just the three voices and the piano. It’s magic.” 

“Yeah. I’m not going to lie, I’m pretty proud of that one.” 

“You should be! The only thing that would make it better is a cello,” she said with a grin. 

Taylor’s eyes widened at the thought. She was right. That would sound amazing. If only he had thought of it before. 

“Okay, on the next record, we’ll have you playing cello.” 

“You promise?”

“I promise,” he said as he turned the radio back up. Unlike his younger brother, after concerts it took him hours to settle down. Zac could fall right to sleep, and usually did, but Taylor had to unwind well into the night. He was glad that tonight he had company. 

He wished he could say how much he appreciated her, how when every other girl in the world (or so it seemed) doodled “Mrs. Taylor Hanson” on their school notebooks, Phoebe would rather talk about adding a cello line to one of his songs. He wished he could tell her how much he loved watching her play, and how he could always tell when a song was forming in her head (the two creases by her eyebrows would deepen and she would start breathing quickly). He wished, just like her, that this night would go on for a little while longer. 

Later in their lives, Phoebe and Taylor would write countless songs together. They worked well, his lyrical ideas floating up with the stars and her musical gravitas grounding them into reality; his tinkling keys contrasting her warm, rich strings. They would write songs about each other too. Maybe not in the same way that she and Zac would exchange intricately crafted secret messages disguised as ballads, but they could definitely find each other hiding in their lyrics if they looked hard enough. That’s why, a few years later, when Taylor would tell interviewers and fans alike that the first single off of their new album was simply a love letter to music, it wasn’t completely a lie. Phoebe and music went hand in hand, after all. He always wondered if she figured it out, after playing that specific song hundreds of times on the road along side them. He never actually told her. Sure he changed it to a different name starting with a P, but “Penny and Me” would still always be about the girl from back home with a melody in her heart.


End file.
